Bush voters may not be so stupid

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Watch or read the media and you get the sense that the only people who voted for Bush were tobacco-chewin', gun-totin', G-d-fearin' simpletons. Every clip of a Bush voter sounds like an idiot: "Well, I sorta kinda liked Bush, well, just because I just sorta kinda trust him."

Then, how do you explain this: Buried at the bottom of hundreds of election statistics on CNN's website is this: 52% of college graduates voted for Bush vs. only 46% for Kerry. Not surprisingly, the liberal media couldn't find time amid all the ridiculing of Bush voters to mention that little untidy fact.

Frankly, it doesn't surprise me that more college graduates voted for Bush. You'll never hear it in the mainstream media, but an intelligent if not dispositive argument can be made that America will likely be better in four years under Bush than it would have been under Kerry:

1. In the Senate, Kerry voted against military appropriations 98 times. Of course, in the presidential campaign Kerry made himself sound tough on terrorism. But the public, rightfully trusted that Bush would be tougher than Kerry, who would likely be more swayed by the ACLU than by his military advisors. Intelligent voters judge a person by what he does, not by what he says.

2 According to the nonpartisan National Journal, John Kerry's voting record, over his 20 years in the Senate. was the #1 most liberal, moreso even than Edward Kennedy's. Liberalism's key principle is to redistribute wealth from the haves to the have nots. That takes money from the entities with the greatest potential to improve society (for example, corporations than create jobs, invent life-saving medicines, etc) and redistributes it to the people, whom on average, will never contribute more to society than to hold a menial job.
It is not irrational for a voter to therefore be wary of the economic effects of a Kerry presidency.

3. In a March, 29, 2004 interview in the Wilmington Journal, Kerry said, "I support it (affirmative action) now and I will always support it in the future (emphasis mine)." Kerry filed a brief in favor of reverse discrimination in the landmark University of Michigan, Gratz v. Bollinger and Grutter v Bollinger, while the Bush administration filed a brief in opposition. Being in favor of reverse discrimination not only devastates the more qualified applicants for jobs or college slots but decreases the quality of everything we depend on: from the safety of the planes we fly to the quality of our phone service to the competence of our surgeons. To vote for the candidate who opposes reverse discrimination is not stupid.

4. In a recent address to the National Convention of La Raza, the nation's most powerful Latino advocacy organization, Kerry promised that within 100 days of taking office, he would spearhead legislation that would create a path to citizenship for illegals. Our hospitals, schools, and criminal justice system are already creaking, in part because of the tidal wave of illegals. If Kerry had implemented his plan, that would have sent the clearest possible signal that the US will not defend its borders so. Everyone, come on in. The mainstream media argues that the effect of illegals is a net positive, but the definitive study on this by the Center for Immigration Studies shows that not only do illegals cost the taxpayer a net $10 billion each year but also are driving down the wages of legal residents, disproportionately minorities. And as alluded to above, the toll illegals are taking on our schools, hospitals, and us in terms of violent crime are far greater than we have been led to believe. For space reasons, the details need to be deferred to another column. (Or see my article, "The Overwhelming of America" on www.martynemko.com.) It is not stupid for a voter to have voted for Bush, who would have been tougher on illegal immigration.

I'm not saying that all Bush voters are Einsteins or even that it's clear that the US will be better in four years under Bush. But if you voted for Bush, you have every right to be angry at a media that stereotypes you as a Gomer. And if you voted for Kerry, consider being a little slower to ridicule Bush voters.

11/05/04: Career Lessons from the Bush Win
10/20/04: In Search of a candidate I can be passionate about10/14/04: Better than a management book09/29/04: Deep Down, I Don't Wanna Work09/14/04: How to tell what career you should choose08/23/04: Nemko's Rules: A contrarian approach to career and job finding07/29/04: Are you lazy?06/17/04: We already send too many students to college06/11/04: The case against work/life balance05/13/04: The Dumbing of America … and how to make it (and you) smarter04/26/04: Do you talk too much?12/08/03: How Open-Minded Are You, Really?11/05/03: Driven to an early grave08/18/03: The Truth About Teaching05/12/03: Today's #1 hirer04/30/03: What Are You Good At, Really?04/10/03: Career advice I'd give my child03/04/03: Under the radar: The One-Week Job Search02/11/03: The World's Shortest Course on Managing Diversity02/03/03: The Good Employer01/29/03: What do you want to be when you grow up?01/15/03: Passion Finder12/18/02: Curing procrastination12/12/02: The World's Shortest Course on Self-Employment12/05/02: Men as Beasts of Burden11/21/02: Beware of going back to school